Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome Advisory Council advises HHSC and the Texas Legislature on research, diagnosis, treatment and education related to pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome.
The Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS) Advisory Council was established by Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 119A.
According to Stanford Medicine, PANS is a clinical diagnosis given to children who have a dramatic onset of neuropsychiatric symptoms, including obsessive-compulsive disorder or an eating disorder with at least two other cognitive, behavioral or neurological symptoms.
A PANS diagnosis is based on an analysis of the child’s medical history, current symptoms, and a physical examination. PANS interferes with children’s ability to learn in school and, if left untreated, can negatively affect their quality of life.
Symptoms typically appear following an infection or other inflammatory reaction. According to the Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS) Network, an estimated 1 in 200 children are affected by PANS.
The purpose of the PANS Advisory Council is to advise the Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Legislature on research, diagnosis, treatment, and education related to PANS.
The Council files an annual written report to the governor, legislature and commission by September 1 of each year that includes recommendations on:
- Practice guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of PANS.
- Increasing clinical awareness and education regarding PANS among physicians, including pediatricians, school-based health centers and mental health care providers.
- Outreach strategies to increase educators’ and parents’ awareness of PANS.
- Developing a network of volunteer experts on the diagnosis and treatment of PANS to assist in the delivery of education and outreach.
Members:
|
|
Annual Report September 2024 (PDF)
- Welcome, introductions, and roll call. The meeting was convened by Amy L. Offutt, Chair. A quorum was present.
- Consideration of May 13, 2025, draft meeting minutes. The minutes were approved as drafted
- Committee meeting updates
Committee on Public Matters–They are still looking at ways to reach out to the public. They also refocused on the legislative report, and the updated report will be sent out to hospitals and other stakeholders.
Committee on Clinical Matters—There is now a database of available literature. They have been working on a paper for publication. There is also a banking system being developed to bank data and information.
- Discussion and consideration of the draft annual legislative report (as required by Texas Health and Safety Code, Section 119A.007).
They have been looking at the 2024 report to provide updates. They continue to update the report from the previous year. (inquiring minds wonder why this is the approach). The report has consistently been long and has been edited by some of the members and the Chair.
The overlapping of autism and PANS/PANDAS is now included in the report. The format is done using a table format.
The report is very technical. The report must be approved or reconvening to approve the report will be required. There should be an interagency review for readability.
The report has not been made available for review by the public. This begs the question of what people should comment on during the public comment period
Staff stated that HHSC would require the report to be put through a plain language review.
The absence of a specified code restricts data gathering efforts.
MOTION: Adopt the (mystery) report as presented with amendments that would align with the discussion today prevailed
MOTION: Authorize Chair, Co-Chair and/or staff to make nonsubstantive changes prevailed.
- Presentation on bills passed during the 89th Legislature, Regular Session, 2025
House Bills
HB117, HB00117F.pdf. Relating to the establishment of the governor’s task force on the governance of early childhood education and care.
CSHB 117 would establish the Governor’s Task Force on Governance of Early Childhood Education and Care under the Texas Education Agency to address governance and operational challenges within Texas’ early childhood education system.
Membership. The task force would be required to include a steering committee composed of the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), the commissioner of the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the chair of the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), relevant division directors designated by these individuals, and TEA’s inter-agency deputy director of early childhood support.
CSHB 117 also would require the task force to be composed:
- of one public school teacher certified to teach prekindergarten;
- one certified teacher employed by a private child-care facility or prekindergarten program;
- a representative from the Texas Head Start State Collaboration Office appointed by the governor;
- a representative from the Department of State Health Services appointed by the governor;
- two representatives from the Texas Early Learning Council designated by the steering committee; and
- between two and five individuals appointed by the governor with relevant knowledge of or experience in early childhood education and care.
Powers and duties. Under CSHB 117, the task force would be required to examine governance and operational challenges within the early childhood system, including those of federal and local child-care programs and their governing regulations. The task force also would be required to conduct a comprehensive review of the existing functions and responsibilities of HHSC, TEA, and TWC with a focus on improving government efficiency, and consider methods for a large-scale redesign of early childhood programs to improve efficiency, service delivery, care quality, and the effective use of funding.
The task force’s steering committee would be required to align the goals, metrics, and statewide data systems of HHSC, TEA, and TWC to measure progress. The steering committee would also have to require these agencies to complete and submit periodic progress reports to the task force and regularly refine statewide goals and strategic plans to ensure alignment with evolving early childhood education and care needs.
No later than December 1, 2026, the task force would be required to provide budget and policy recommendations to the Legislature that would enhance early childhood education and care participant engagement with state agencies and lead to improved operational efficiency, increased affordable childcare capacity, and improved kindergarten readiness.
From money appropriated or otherwise available for the purpose, TEA would be obligated to cover the costs of data system integration, research, and administration related to the task force.
This task force would be abolished on September 1, 2027.
The bill would take immediate effect if finally passed by a two-thirds record vote of the membership of each house. Otherwise, it would take effect September 1, 2025.
HB1188, HB01188F.pdf; Relating to the provision of information regarding a local intellectual and developmental disability authority to the parents or guardians of certain special education students.
School districts begin transition planning at age 14 for students receiving special education services, but this process does not ensure referrals to local intellectual and developmental disability authorities (LIDDAs) or Medicaid waiver programs. As a result, families often miss years of available services, and lengthy Medicaid waiver waitlists leave many without critical support.
H.B. 1188 requires school districts to refer eligible students to a LIDDA as soon as they are identified, rather than waiting until transition planning begins. By accelerating referrals, families gain earlier access to essential services, improving long-term outcomes for students with disabilities in education, employment, and independent living.
H.B. 1188 amends current law relating to the provision of information regarding a local intellectual and developmental disability authority to the parents or guardians of certain special education students.
CSHB 1188 would require a school district, at a child’s first individualized education program (IEP) committee meeting, to provide the parent or guardian of a student who had an intellectual disability or developmental delay with information about services and public benefits provided by the local intellectual and developmental disability authority (LIDDA), including under home- and community-based service waiver programs established by the federal Social Security Act.
The bill would apply beginning with the 2025-2026 school year and would take immediate effect if finally passed by a two-thirds record vote of the membership of each house. Otherwise, it would take effect September 1, 2025.
HB2310, HB02310F.pdf. Relating to developing a strategic plan for the improvement and expansion of early learning and educational opportunities for young children with disabilities.
HB 2310 would require the Texas Education Agency (TEA), in collaboration with the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) and the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), to develop and implement a strategic plan to improve early learning and educational opportunities for young children with disabilities or developmental delays. In developing the strategic plan, TEA, in coordination with HHSC and TWC, would have to:
- develop strategies for the inclusion of children with disabilities in early childhood education settings;
- consider topics and existing barriers relating to ensuring, and any changes to existing practices or policies necessary to ensure, more effective inclusion of such children, including in prekindergarten programs, early childhood special education programs, and TWC subsidized child-care programs; and
- coordinate with, at a minimum, representatives of state, regional, and local agencies, the governor’s Texas Early Learning Council, nonprofit organizations, and relevant social services providers.
The bill would require the strategic plan to include:
- the strategies for the inclusion of children with disabilities in early childhood education settings developed by TEA signed by the education commissioner, the HHSC executive commissioner, and the TWC executive commissioner;
- a description of existing barriers to the effective inclusion of such children in early learning programs; and
- recommendations for statutory, regulatory, guidance, or funding changes, and policy implementation changes, necessary to improve the inclusion of such children in early childhood education programs.
The plan also would be required to include information on current and proposed strategies and recommendations for:
- improved provider staffing, training, sustainability, and effectiveness across public schools, child-care programs, and early childhood intervention services providers;
- the effective leveraging of existing funding and resources;
- streamlined transitions for families from early childhood intervention programs to early childhood special education programs, and from early childhood special education programs to special education programs; and
- improved collaboration and partnerships between child-care programs, early childhood intervention services providers, and public schools.
By September 1 of the last fiscal year in each four-year period covered by the most recent strategic plan TEA would be required to update the plan for the subsequent four-year period and submit the updated strategic plan to the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the speaker of the House. TEA, HHSC, and TWC also would have to publish the updated plan on their respective websites, with the initial strategic plan published and submitted to the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the speaker of the House by September 1, 2026.
The bill would take immediate effect if finally passed by a two-thirds record vote of the membership of each house. Otherwise, it would take effect September 1, 2025.
HB3963; HB03963F.pdf. Relating to an early childhood integrated data system.
CSHB 3963 would establish the early childhood interagency work group to promote collaboration across state agencies serving families with young children. The working group would consist of representatives from the:
- Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS);
- Department of State Health Services (DSHS);
- Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC);
- Texas Education Agency (TEA); and
- Texas Workforce Commission (TWC).
TEA would be the lead agency of the work group. Cooperating entities under the bill would include the Children’s Learning Institute at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, HHSC, TEA, and TWC.
The work group would be required to initiate the development of the early childhood integrated data system for the purpose of facilitating the sharing of data from early childhood programs across state agencies to inform state policy related to early childhood programs and guide outcome improvements to early childhood programs. The system would have to be developed in a manner that allowed for the integration of existing state and federal data systems accessible to the cooperating entities and containing data derived from early childhood services and programs. The system also would have to allow for the identification of and reporting on:
- specific outcome measures using aggregated data without identifying information, to the extent state or federal law, as applicable, expressly authorizes that use of the information;
- gaps in services;
- opportunities to align services and programs; and
- coordination needs across services and programs.
The system also would have to comply with state and federal laws relating to privacy, cybersecurity, and data collection.
As lead agency, TEA would be required to:
- oversee the completion of the system as initially developed;
- implement and maintain the system with assistance from the work group;
- provide staff to operate the system;
- using system data, conduct data matching using a protocol approved by the cooperating entities; and
- in coordination with the cooperating entities, oversee research projects related to the system.
TEA and each cooperating entity would be required to enter into a memorandum of understanding regarding data sharing for the system. The memorandum of understanding would have to specify the data to be shared and the frequency and manner of that data sharing.
CSHB 3963 would require TEA to submit to the governor and the Legislature an annual report on system progress. The initial report would have to include:
- an interagency data governance plan with objectives relevant to the system and a framework for achieving those objectives, the roles and responsibilities of all state entities involved in establishing and maintaining the system, and documentation of relevant state and federal privacy, cybersecurity, and data collection laws;
- a design plan that included data integration, security, storage, retention, management, processing, and analytics and other products and roles and responsibilities of relevant state entity personnel regarding data integration; and
- information on the status of hiring staff, funding, and the development of a website with a preliminary, publicly available consumer data dashboard.
Each subsequent report would have to include updates to the required information above, an overview of business use cases the system could support, and information on the development of analytic tools based on such cases.
The work group, the cooperating entities, and TEA could use any available state or federal money to develop the system. TEA would be required to actively pursue grants or other money available from the state and federal government to operate the system. The work group, the cooperating entities, and TEA could accept gifts, grants, and donations from any source for the purposes of the bill.
TEA would be required to undertake to ensure that the system established under the bill was completed by January 1, 2027.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2025.
Senate Bills
Senate Bill 1,
Increased funding:
Outpatient Biopsychosocial integration program
Community Services division expansion of outpatient services OBI expansion.
Youth crisis outreach program– YCOT expansion
Child mental health care consortium
SB1760 SB01760F.pdf; Relating to guardianships for persons who are incapacitated; changing a fee.
SB 1760 would amend the Estates Code to revise provisions relating to the guardianship proceedings for incapacitated wards by establishing procedures governing transfers and fees, discharges, and resignations of the guardian of a ward’s estate.
Transfers. For cases in which a court did not have venue over a proceeding, the bill would require the court, upon the application of any interested person, to transfer guardianship proceedings to the appropriate county in the manner prescribed by provisions governing the transfer of guardianship records.
On filing an application or on motion of a court to transfer a guardianship to another county, SB 1760 would require the sureties on the bond of the guardian to be cited by a qualified delivery method, rather than a personal service, to appear and show cause as to why the guardianship should not be transferred. The bill would also amend the requirement to include guardianship proceedings in which a court did not have venue over a proceeding
Regarding a court order authorizing the transfer of guardianship from one county to another, the bill would require the clerk of the court to which the guardianship was transferred, rather than the county, to accept the transfer.
The bill would amend the information that the court clerk was required to send to the county clerk of the county to which the guardianship was transferred to include:
- a certified index of transferred documents;
- a copy of each order, rather than a copy of each final order; and
- a copy of the original papers filed in the transferring court, including any transferred papers previously received from a court in another county.
When transferring a proceeding, the bill would require the clerk of the transferring court to use a certified index of transferred documents form developed by the Office of Court Administration (OCA) and would specify that the copies of transferred documents that have to be kept include transferred pleadings, orders, and all other papers filed into the case record. The bill would require the clerk of the court to which the proceeding was transferred to docket the proceeding, rather than the suit.
Transfer fee. The bill would establish a $45 filing fee for the transfer of a guardianship case from another county and would specify that no portion of the fee could be sent to the state. A party could not be assessed any other filing fee by the clerk of the court to which the guardianship was transferred in connection with the filing and docketing of the transferred case. The bill would prevail over conflicting state law or procedures.
Receipts. In addition to other accepted financial institutions, SB 1760 would authorize the guardian of an estate to deposit accepted alternatives to a bond surety with the court registry, for which the court clerk would be required to issue a receipt. Such a receipt or record of a deposit to the court registry would have to be attached to the guardian’s bond in a format specified by the bill.
The bill would establish that a guardian’s bond and depository receipt would have to be delivered to and filed by the county clerk after the judge approved the bond, rather than the receipt.
Rights and obligations of guardians. In addition to the rights and duties of guardians specified in current statute, the bill would grant guardians:
- the duty to notify the court, as soon as practicable, if the ward died or was admitted to a medical facility for acute care for three or more days;
- the duty to notify the court within 30 days of the ward’s residence or address change or a change in the guardian’s residence, address, phone number, or other contact information used by the court to contact the guardian.
Allowances for ward’s spouse and children. In provisions related to allowances for a ward’s spouse and dependent, the bill would replace references to a ward’s “dependent” with references to the ward’s “minor children or incapacitated adult children.” The bill also would require that copies of notices sent by a person who applied to the court for an allowance, including copies of the proof of delivery receipt for each notice, were filed with the court.
Termination of guardianship. SB 1760 would revise provisions establishing requirements for a guardian’s discharge of duties by replacing references to “applicant” with references to “guardian” and would require a court entering an order accepting the resignation to cancel the letters issued to the guardian and discharge and release the sureties on the guardian’s bond, if applicable.
For both the discharge of a guardian when no estate property remained and the discharge of a guardian when an estate was fully administered, the court would be required to cancel the letters issued to the guardian of the estate.
On presenting an account for final settlement of the estate, SB 1760 would require the guardian of the estate to file an affidavit sworn to by the guardian or a certificate signed by the guardian’s attorney stating:
- the name of each person to whom citation of the presentation was served, indicating the method of service;
- the name of each person executing a waiver of citation; and
- that each person whose whereabouts were known or could be reasonably ascertained and was entitled to citation was provided a copy of the account for final settlement, indicating the method of delivery for each person to whom a copy was provided.
Other provisions. For applications for temporary guardianship filed with the court, the court clerk would be required to issue a citation to be personally served to the applicable parties.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2025.
- PANS liaison update:
Announcement of the 2026 Council meeting schedule.
February 10, 2026
May 12, 2026
August 4, 2026
November 3, 2026
Discussion of the new member orientation schedule. Rescheduling will be done for members who have not completed the training.
- Public comment. No public comment was offered.
- Next Council meeting date. February 10, 2026
- Adjourn. There being no further business the meeting was adjourned.
***
The information contained in this publication is the property of Texas Insight and is considered confidential and may contain proprietary information. It is meant solely for the intended recipient. Access to this published information by anyone else is unauthorized unless Texas Insight grants permission. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted in reliance on this is prohibited. The views expressed in this publication are, unless otherwise stated, those of the author and not those of Texas Insight or its management.